Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE:CLF) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the thirteen analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $9.94.

A number of research firms recently commented on CLF. Zacks Investment Research lowered Cliffs Natural Resources from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 3rd. FBR & Co set a $10.00 price objective on Cliffs Natural Resources and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 2nd. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Cliffs Natural Resources in a research note on Tuesday, September 19th. Jefferies Group LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Cliffs Natural Resources in a research note on Monday, September 18th. Finally, ValuEngine lowered Cliffs Natural Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 1st.

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Shares of Cliffs Natural Resources (NYSE CLF) opened at 6.77 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $7.51 and a 200-day moving average of $7.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.06 and a beta of 1.65. Cliffs Natural Resources has a 12 month low of $4.91 and a 12 month high of $12.37.

Cliffs Natural Resources (NYSE:CLF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The mining company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $569.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $485.93 million. Cliffs Natural Resources had a negative return on equity of 13.83% and a net margin of 2.44%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.07 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Cliffs Natural Resources will post $0.88 EPS for the current year.

In other Cliffs Natural Resources news, Chairman Lourenco Goncalves purchased 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 10th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $7.19 per share, with a total value of $719,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chairman now owns 3,486,970 shares in the company, valued at $25,071,314.30. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Cliffs Natural Resources by 0.3% in the second quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 52,796 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $365,000 after buying an additional 137 shares during the period. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Cliffs Natural Resources by 1.2% in the first quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 13,974 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $115,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in Cliffs Natural Resources by 3.8% in the second quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 22,601 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $156,000 after buying an additional 824 shares during the period. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. lifted its stake in Cliffs Natural Resources by 8.3% in the second quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 26,167 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $181,000 after buying an additional 2,016 shares during the period. Finally, Amalgamated Bank lifted its stake in Cliffs Natural Resources by 7.2% in the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 35,530 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $246,000 after buying an additional 2,392 shares during the period. 58.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Cliffs Natural Resources Company Profile

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc, formerly Cliffs Natural Resources Inc, is a mining and natural resources company. The Company is a supplier of iron ore pellets to the North American steel industry from its mines and pellet plants located in Michigan and Minnesota. The Company’s segments include U.S. Iron Ore and Asia Pacific Iron Ore.